Nazareth's fast start stops Northampton

The Blue Eagles win the first 10 bouts on their way to a 37-15 win.

January 05, 2006|By Gary R. Blockus Of The Morning Call

Northampton wrestling coach Terry Daubert has seen Nazareth a couple of times so far this season.

He saw the Blue Eagles when Nazareth hosted the Cement Town Duals -- with Northampton -- at the beginning of the season, and he saw them again last week at the Bethlehem Holiday tournament. There, Nazareth finished second to Blair Academy, while Northampton finished third.

"They may be a better dual-meet team than tournament team," Daubert said before the taking on the host Blue Eagles on Wednesday night.

He was right.

Nazareth won the first 10 bouts en route to a 37-15 thrashing of Northampton.

"Those first few bouts, I thought they wrestled us very tough," said Nazareth head coach Dave Crowell. "You start watching those first couple of matches, and they were really tough.

"We were kind of struggling to stay with them. I though Mario's win at 125 helped pick us up when we were struggling."

Mario Giordano (125) reversed the championship final of the Bethlehem Holiday tournament against Chris Wieller, who decisioned Giordano in the finals, the first time the two had ever met.

Their second meeting seemed to be going the same route when Giordano (17-3) scored a takedown with 17 seconds left in regulation to tie the bout at 5 and send it into overtime.

Wieller (8-5) nearly scored a takedown at the edge of the mat at the start of overtime, but was ruled out of bounds by referee Bob Colletta, and seconded by mat judge Gene Waas. Giordano scored the winning takedown 27 seconds into the extra period for the 7-5 win.

"We lost a lot of momentum at 125," agreed Daubert. "We got lazy for the last 30 seconds. I thought we dominated that match for the first 21/2 periods."

The Konkrete Kids (3-3) lost four bouts by two points or less and six by four or less.

Bobby Ward (112) started the night off with a win for the Blue Eagles, but Northampton freshman Shane Fenningham (13-6) came up with a victory of his own. Ward (19-3), a sophomore, scored a technical fall over Fenningham at the Bethlehem Holiday Classic last week, but could only muster a 5-3 decision on Wednesday night.

Jimmy Sheptock, another of the six starting freshmen for the Konkrete Kids, put on a solid display against Nazareth senior Andrew Flegler at 119. Flegler (16-3) scored the only takedown, but Sheptock (11-6) had three good single leg shots that ended in stalemates. Flegler came out on top by a 5-1 count as Nazareth took a 6-0 team lead.

Mike Greck, Nazareth's 135-pounder, avoided giving up a takedown twice in the final period to hold on for a 7-5 decision over fellow junior Jake Stout. Greck (18-5) and his two-point decision provided the fourth narrow win of the evening for the team clad in white singlets as the lead climbed to 18-0.

Andrew Ritchie provided the second bonus win of the night for Nazareth with a dominating 12-0 major decision over freshman Phil Marano (5-6). Marano slowed Ritchie down in the opening period, but Ritchie (15-5), a senior, proved too tough and added five points in each of the next two periods.

Phil Santee (11-3) added a second pin for the Blue Eagles to make it two bonus wins in a row as the lead soared to 28-0. Santee pinned fellow senior Jake Wandler (6-9) at 3:53 after working patiently from the top for the entire second period to earn the fall.

The huge gap allowed Crowell to insert backup Adam Counterman into the lineup at 152 in place of returning state champion Tim Darling, who is moving up to 152 from 145 a year ago.

Counterman scored a go-ahead takedown on sophomore Mike Wechsler with 24 seconds left in the second period and rode the Konkrete Kid for the first minute of the final period. Wechsler escaped, but Counterman took the Northampton wrestler to his back for a four-point move and a 9-3 decision.

Using Counterman allowed Crowell to put Darling against junior Marcus Wilson (11-4) to counter Northampton's strength in the upper weights. Darling scored a second-period escape, but Wilson chose neutral to start the final period, wary of Darling's ability from the offensive position. Wilson never got close to a takedown as Darling held on for the 1-0 decision.

Thad Frick (18-3), bumped up to 171 to take on Northampton senior Mike Wolfer (12-4), proceeded to score a pair of first-period takedowns, then add a lateral drop for a four-point move in the final period en route to a 9-6 decision.

Justin Wieller (16-2) had to fight the entire way for Northampton's first win, a 2-1 decision over David Crowell (13-5). Wieller, the junior brother of Chris, scored an escape to start the second period, picked up a stalling point and held on for the win.

Aaron Chamberlain (8-8), who weighed in at 189, bumped up 26 pounds and earned Northampton's second win of the night. He took on -- and beat -- Nazareth 215-pounder Jim Mutch 5-3 on the strength of two sets of nearfall points in the second period.

Northampton heavyweight Justin Oplinger (13-4) defeated junior Mike Mutch 3-2 in regulation to end a streak of two straight overtime bouts between the two wrestlers from last season.